


Old Scars

by LupaDracolis



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Gen, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-19
Updated: 2012-05-19
Packaged: 2017-11-05 15:29:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/408026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LupaDracolis/pseuds/LupaDracolis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There was a sharp crack, and as one the nations were diving for cover.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Old Scars

There was a sharp _crack_ , and as one the nations were diving for cover. Thoughts in muddy fields and muddier trenches, where the remembered sky was a permanent depressing grey, England and France both dropped into the gutter and laid flat out, hands over head, face pressed to the ground and eyes screwed shut. _No war was supposed to be like this. No war had ever been like this before._

America had thrown himself into a doorway, and with a flash his gun was out of his pocket, in his hands… and he didn’t see the western city around them either – for him it was hot, and wet, and somewhere out there in the Vietnamese jungle, they were there. He couldn’t see them, he _couldn’t see them_ … but they were there. And they wanted to kill him. _He was trying to help them. Why couldn’t they understand that?_

I said, earlier, that the nations dove for cover as one, but it was not strictly true. For France, England, and America, it was, but Russia just stood there, gazing forward, frozen. His mind was in a cold courtyard, not that far from his house, and he was seeing the family, once so great, lying on their faces on the ground, blood from their wounds pooling beneath them. He had to be happy, to cheer, watching even little Anastasia dead on the ground.

After a few moments, America’s gun was put away, England and France stood up and brushed themselves down, and the three shared an awkward laugh about the backfiring car – which was of course all that the crack had been – and towards the end, Russia joined in, with his childlike chuckle. But the trenches, and the jungle, and the courtyard were still there. Old scars, you see, run deep.


End file.
